The present invention relates to a communication system and method for providing a stable and tamper proof communication between a vehicle (such as for instance a truck), a vehicle related unit (such as for instance a truck related unit, such as a trailer), and at least one remote system.
A vehicle according to an aspect of the invention can be every kind of vehicle which is adapted to trail a vehicle related unit, as for instance a truck or a tractor connected to a separate trailer, or which comprises two separated compartments, as for instance a rigid truck having a driver compartment and a storage compartment. The vehicle can also be e.g. a passenger car trailing a caravan, a boat or any other kind of trailer, or a bus with a trailer for skies or with an additional coach (trailer for passengers). Also construction equipments or agricultural equipments, like a tractor and separate equipment connected thereto, or even trains with coaches and wagons as vehicle related units, can be regarded as vehicle in the sense of an aspect of the invention. Moreover, a vehicle can also be a ship or boat (motor boat or sailing boat) both for commercial and leisure purposes with removable (vehicle related) units connected or associated thereto, as well as motorcycles or cycles with trailers.
In the following, an aspect of the invention will be described in more detail in connection with its application for trucks, without thereby limiting the invention in its scope of claimed protection. The man skilled in the art can easily apply aspects of the invention in other fields than trucks, for instance in the field of cars, buses or construction equipment, by following the description below.
From the state of the art, a plurality of truck-trailer communication systems and methods are known. For example, the US patent application US 2007/0149184, describes a communication method between a truck, a trailer and a remote system, wherein sensor data from sensors monitoring the conditions and states of the truck and/or the trailer are transmitted to a data centre, which process the received sensor data and in turn directs the processed data to the corresponding back offices of the truck, the trailer and even the cargo. The sensors themselves can be part of an onboard system of a truck and/or a trailer, and provide information on the conditions of the truck and the trailer, particularly on the location of them. In addition, sensors can be provided which monitor the condition of a cargo, e.g. the temperature of deep frozen cargo. The conditions monitored by the sensors can also include information on unauthorized access to, or unauthorized movement or unauthorized transportation of the truck, the trailer or the cargo. The information is collected and analyzed by processors of the data centre and, dependent on the result, a re-commanding, like the change of a route, or an adjustment of the temperature can be re-transmitted to the truck-trailer combination.
For transmitting the information, the truck comprises a transceiver which transmits information to and from the on-board system over a wireless communication network to and from the data centre. In case the trailer is parked in a depot or distribution centre, the sensors of the trailer are directly connectable to a distribution centre management system for providing data on trailer locations or states.
The main disadvantage of this system and method is that for transmitting the information to the remote data centre, the information are centrally collected and transmitted by a main transceiver. In case the main transceiver is broken—intentionally, e.g. by a tamper or theft attempt, or unintentionally, e.g. due to wear or by accident, —the information cannot be transmitted to the remote data centre any more.
It is desirable to provide a stable and tamper proof communication system and method between a vehicle, such as a truck, at least one vehicle related unit, particularly a truck-related unit such as a trailer, and at least one remote system which is still operable, even if a default communication line is disturbed.
According to an aspect of the invention, a communication between a vehicle, at least one vehicle related unit and at least one remote system is established by providing a communication between a vehicle's on-board connectivity layer comprising at least one vehicle located communication node and at least one vehicle associatable communication node (a “vehicle associatable communication node” being defined as a communication node that is adapted to be associated with a vehicle), and an off-board connectivity layer comprising at least one remote system located communication node. The establishment of communication possibilities between each communication node of on-board and off-board connectivity layer provides a stable a tamper proof communication system and method, since, even if a communication connection is disturbed or interrupted, the system and the method, respectively, is enabled to used another communication connection as “by-pass” communication connection. For this purpose each communication node comprises a routing unit which is adapted to establish and route a “by-pass” communication connection to at least one other communication node in order to provide the communication connection between the communication nodes.
In the following the description will solely focus on its preferred application to trucks and truck related units for easier understanding. Nevertheless, the scope of the claims is not intended to be limited thereby. The truck related unit can be e.g. at least one trailer, whereby a truck-trailer-combination is formed, but it is also possible that a storage compartment of a rigid truck is regarded as truck related unit.
A connectivity layer according to an aspect of the invention may comprise a plurality of electronic and electric devices which are interconnectable via communication nodes and can exchange any kind of data. E.g. the truck's on-board connectivity layer can comprise all integral (=constantly connectable or built-in) and/or nomadic (=part-time connectable or removable) devices which are based on or are associatable to a truck.
An integral device based on a truck can be e.g. a truck's telematics system, a truck's on-board system, a truck's sensor network or any other truck component, such as a truck's storage compartment or a truck's engine. A nomadic system based on a truck can be e.g. a trailer or a mobile phone which is connectable to the truck's telematics system. An integral system associatable to the truck can be e.g. a trailer's/cargo's on-board system and/or a trailer's/cargo's telematics system and/or a trailer's/cargo's sensor network. However, also the storage compartment of a rigid truck, as well as a driver and driver related devices can be regarded as truck associatable units, wherein the storage compartment could be regarded as integral and the driver as nomadic device associatable to the truck. A device regardable as integral as well as nomadic device associatable to a truck can be e.g. a fifth wheel control unit having a fifth wheel connection sensor.
Ordinarily, telematics or on-board systems comprise a plurality of electronic and electric devices which are interconnected by wired connections such as a CAN bus (“Controller Area Network”, a network protocol common in the automotive industry) or a token bus, and/or wireless connections, such as Bluetooth (an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks) or infrared, or by ad-hoc connections such as a ZigBee system (a wireless standard designed for small and low-powered components). The telematics or on-board system can also include a complete sensor network or part of it, but the sensor network itself can also be regarded an independent on-board system. In general, the sensor system provides data on the state or the condition of the truck and/or the trailer and/or the cargo. For example, the sensors can sense, among others, tire pressure or cargo temperature or open/closed doors.
To each telematics or on-board system one or a plurality of nomadic systems (systems which are not constantly connected or not constantly incorporated to/in the system), can be connected. A nomadic system is for example a driver's mobile phone or PDA (“Personal Digital Assistant”). But also trailer and/or cargo can be regarded as nomadic system to the truck, since they are not constantly connected to the truck. Each nomadic system also comprises communication nodes which can establish a communication to the telematics or on-board system or any corresponding remote system.
Integral and/or nomadic devices themselves can also comprise a plurality of sub-integral and sub-nomadic devices. E.g. a driver's mobile phone or handheld computer can be regarded as sub-nomadic device to the nomadic device “driver”, or a cargo can be regarded either as sub-integral or sub-nomadic device to the integral/nomadic device “trailer”. Nevertheless, the classification as integral, sub-integral, nomadic or sub-nomadic is not sharp, since units can likewise be regarded as integral or nomadic depending on the specific circumstances of the individual application in or for which they are used or supposed to be used and/or the context of the situation in which they are used or supposed to be used. The above stated examples should only show the variety of formation possibilities for the on-board connectivity layer.
The same variety applies to the off-board communication layer. It can also comprise a plurality of different kinds of remote systems. In a common sense, the off-board connectivity layer corresponding to the truck's on-board connectivity layer comprises a truck's, and/or a trailer's and/or a cargo's back office system. In addition, the off-board connectivity layer can also include—among others—an end user's (customer's) back office, a security call centre and/or an emergency call centre.
In the following the truck associatable unit is exemplarily embodied as trailer for easier reading and understanding of an aspect of the invention's principle. Further, it should be clear from the above description that each part of the on-board and off-board connectivity layer can also comprise a plurality of communication nodes.
A communication node in the sense of an aspect of the invention is any device which is able to transmit and receive data of any kind. For example a modem having an antenna is a communication node, but also an interface like a serial port can be regarded as communication node. Each communication node further comprises a routing unit for establishing and routing a communication connection to at least one other communication node, i.e. the routing unit enables the communication node to transmit and receive data. Such a routing unit can be a common router, bridge, switch, hub or gateway, but also any other electronic or electric device which can provide a communication to another device.
The communication connections can be unidirectional, i.e. a communication node can only transmit or receive a message or data, whereby a one way communication is established, or bi-directional, i.e. a communication node can transmit and receive messages or data, whereby a two way communication is established or any combination thereof. It is also possible that a bi-directional communication between a communication node A and a communication node B is established in such a manner that a message or data transmitted from communication node A to communication node B is directed over a third communication node C, whereby the communication connection over communication node C is unidirectional, and a message or data transmitted from communication node B to communication node A is directly transmitted. It is clear for a person skilled in the art that more than a third communication node C can be involved and also that the message or data transmitted from communication node B to communication node A can be sent via further unidirectional or bidirectional communication nodes.
Additionally, the routing unit can route messages or data according to different routing schemes. For instance the routing unit can transmit data according to a unicast or a multicast or a broadcast or an anycast routing scheme. A unicast routing scheme is routing scheme, wherein the data are transmitted to a single destination communication node. In contrast to that, the terms broadcast or multicast describe the transmission of data to a plurality of destination communication nodes, wherein broadcast and multicast differ in so far that broadcasting describes the transmission to all available destination communication nodes, wherein for a multicast routing scheme, the routing unit selects at least two destination communication nodes from a plurality of destination communication nodes. An anycast routing scheme describes a scenario, whereby data is routed to the “nearest” or “best” destination communication node(s) as viewed by the routing unit.
Preferably, the routing unit selects the routing scheme to be used depended on the message or data which shall be transmitted. For example in case an emergency message needs to be transmitted, the routing unit can select a broadcast, multicast or anycast routing scheme, whereby the message is transmitted to a plurality of destination communication nodes. It is also possible that such a message is transmitted without defining a destination communication node at all.
In the following an aspect of the invention is described more in detail in connection with bidirectional communication connections between communication nodes. However, it is clear for the man skilled in the art that this shall not be seen as limitation of the invention which is also usable in applications where unidirectional communication connections between communication nodes are used instead or combinations of unidirectional and bi-directional communication connections.
Communication between the communication nodes is performed via established (exemplarily bi-directional) communication connections e.g. between a communication node located in the truck and a communication node located in the trailer, the truck's communication node and a communication node located in a truck's remote system, and the trailer's communication node and the remote system's communication node. Or, as a further preferred embodiment shows, between the communication nodes of the truck and the trailer, the truck and a truck's remote system, the trailer and a trailer's remote system, and the truck's and the trailer's remote systems. In general, a remote system can be a part of a back office system for the truck, trailer and/or cargo management, but also an emergency call centre, such as a police station, and/or a security call centre, like a security company, and/or one or more end users.
In case an established bi-directional communication connection is disturbed, e.g. an antenna is broken or a server used for the connection to a remote system is overloaded, the inventive system and method is enabled to establish and route a connection to and/or over another communication node. That means, for example, if the antenna of the truck is broken, the truck cannot communicate with the remote system any more, i.e. the bi-directional communication connection between truck and remote system is disturbed. Then, according to an aspect of the invention, the truck can use the connection to the trailer and subsequently the connection of the trailer to the remote system for transmitting and/or receiving data.
According to a further embodiment, instead of using an already existing communication connection, each communication node is enabled to establish a further communication connection to a further available communication node. For example, as shown in a preferred embodiment, a communication node detection unit can be provided, which detects further available communication nodes to which the routing unit can establish and route a communication. Such a further available communication node can be e.g. a mobile phone of the driver.
If the remote systems, to which the trailer and/or other parts of the on-board connectivity layer are connected, differ from the remote system the truck is connected to, a communication connection between communication nodes incorporated in the different remote systems are provided. Thereby, it is ensured that data, addressed e.g. to the remote system connected to the truck, are received by this remote system, even if the communication is re-directed e.g. over the trailer's communication node to the trailer's remote system and from there to the truck's remote system.
According to a further preferred embodiment, the communication node can determine a default connection to another communication node. That means, for example, in the simplest connection model, where the trailer, the truck and a single remote system are connected, that data addressed from the truck to the remote system can be transmitted directly to the remote system or via the trailer. The communication node of the truck then determines that data addressed to the remote system should, by default, be transmitted directly to the communication node of the remote system and not over the communication node of the trailer.
In a further preferred embodiment, the communication node can receive and/or transmit data on a disturbed connection or disturbed connections. For example, in case the truck-trailer combination is involved in a highway robbery and the criminals try to destroy the truck's antenna in order to cut off the truck-trailer combination from any communication to a remote system such as an emergency centre or security centre, the inventive system and the inventive method can, preferably automatically, provide a communication to the remote system by using any available communication node to forward the information on the disturbed communication connection or to forward an alarm message.
It is also preferred that the information on a disturbed or destroyed communication connection is transmitted to all communication nodes available to the communication node having a destroyed or disturbed connection, and from there forwarded to other communication nodes, whereby the information on a disturbed or destroyed connection is snowballed.
As further preferred embodiments show, the connection between the communication nodes of the on-board and off-board connectivity layers can be provided by wireless communication connections such as satellite based communication, and/or connections through GPRS (“General Packet Radio Service”, a data transfer service for data transfer in kilobytes available in a cellular communication system), UMTS (“Universal Mobile Telecommunications System”—is one of the third-generation cell phone technologies. Currently, the most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA (“Wideband Code Division Multiple Access”) as the underlying air interface, standardized by the third generation Partnership Project—a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations, to make a globally applicable third generation mobile phone system, —and is the standard European system corresponding to the requirements for third generation cellular radio systems) and/or CDMA (“Code Division Multiple Access”—a hybrid 2.5G/3G protocol of mobile telecommunications standards). It is also possible to use CB (“Citizen Band”) radio service or any other radio service. Preferably, the inventive system and the inventive method use different wireless communication connection, particularly different to the disturbed communication connection, in order to provide a communication even if the cause for the disturbed communication connection is jammed or disabled by a third party.
Since all available communication nodes are interconnected and even further communication nodes can be integrated into the inventive system, data can be transmitted over all established connections to almost all communication nodes. Thereby, the inventive system and method provide a stable and tamper proof communication between the communication nodes of and within the on-board and off-board connectivity layers.
Further advantages and preferred embodiments are defined in the subclaims, the description and/or the figures.